The drama of Broomspringa
Competitive teams breaking up, reforming, and third parties breaking the news
Broomspringa (n): the period in the curling season after major championships, which lasts through the summer, in which curling teams break up and form new teams.
The concept that this newsletter is henceforth referring to as Broomspringa has been called a few things, most prominently “the silly season,” and every four years the number of teams dissembling becomes even greater. Most elite teams are making change, with the notable exceptions of teams skipped by Krista McCarville, Kelsey Rocque, and Glenn Howard.
This concept is not unlike the “hot stove league,” the nickname given to MLB’s offseason and its steady stream of signings, trades, and retirements. It’s a fun side offering between seasons, and Broomspringa is no different.
So we all knew it was going to happen. There’s a whole tracker set up for it. And the team dissolutions/departures have already begun: Teams Bottcher, Fleury, Koe, Scheidegger, Walker, Dunstone, Jones, Homan, Epping, and Horgan were among the notable teams to make announcements.
However, many of the new lineups for Teams Gushue, Bottcher, Koe, Horgan, and Kaitlyn Lawes were announced on Kevin Martin’s Inside Curling podcast on Sportsnet, before the teams had a chance to announce them.
This obviously rubbed a lot of teams the wrong way. Gushue, usually the first voice on such matters, said he wasn’t happy with how it all went down, especially the insinuation that he was going to try and get residency rules changed so E.J. Harnden could play second on his Newfoundland-based team.
I think we can have two things be true at the same time:
-This is common practice for sports journalism
-The common practice kind of stinks
For major sports teams, so often the Ken Rosenthals and Adrian Wojnarowskis of the world have been reporting “breaking news” sports transactions like they’re major scoops, only for the teams to officially announce the deal hours or days later. I never quite understood the purpose of this dynamic but the teams don’t seem to care too much, the information is almost never incorrect, and the major concern is that the athletes’ wellbeing. A lot of times they’re finding out they’ve been traded/their coach was fired on Twitter before the team gets a chance to tell them. You could call the work environment unstable, even toxic.
Circling back to the curling teams, it’s unlikely a teammate is going to discover they’re getting dumped from a team from someone else, although we’ve already drawn the line to podcasts leaking the news of teams, so logically it could happen. This is what we should prevent.
The primary difference between a curling team and a football team is there is owner. The teams are player-owned, and player-formed. You can’t decouple Jennifer Jones from Team Jennifer Jones; it ceases to exist.
Growing professionalization of curling is a double-edged sword. These athletes want more exposure and more access to dollars through both sponsorship and prizes. That’s going to require more people getting involved to secure team stability, from sponsors, coaches, marketing/social media experts, and so forth. The net of curling professionals will widen. And it’s going to be harder to keep this information close to the vest.
With that in mind, curlers (and really anyone) should expect to announce news on their own terms. I’d hate someone learning I formed a curling team before I made it public! But I’m not going to play the Brier, and there’s more than a few reasons for that. The elite players have, however, helped create a level of sports that generated a groundswell of excitement. In the end, podcasts and reporters may be a basic utility of this sport, and as professional athletes, they’re either going to change the way they discuss their future, learn who to trust, or accept that their announcement will simply be part of the paradigm.
And while I’m sure everyone wished Kevin Martin took his information and threw it away like it was a 10th end rock in a world championship final, it’s clear he had a trusted source. When Broomspringa picks back up in 2024, then in 2026, even more teams are going to break up, reform, and find that missing piece. We’re going to go through this a lot. Every time it happens, someone will be involved in a team’s lineup change, and that someone may know a reporter.
Teams might just have to factor this into the equation and lean into it. That way, when the news comes out, we can be excited for the teams, rather than wonder if we should also be angry at someone.